> We subscribe to a few email lists on various languages.
Why do people assume that because they subscribe to a mailing list with their work address that the mailing list must hold to their company's standards?
> This list would have to be the worst for anyone learning > - the amount of sarcasm and flaming that goes on is huge.
If it's the worst, you haven't been on many mailing lists. A word of advice, stay off Usenet.
> Just try and remember - everyone has to learn, > if you feel a question is off topic or stupid - ignore it, > theres no need to make the poster feel like an idiot.
There is when the poster *is* an idiot.
When I first came on this list, I lurked for a few weeks because most of my n00b questions were already being answered in response to other n00bs. But I knew that there weren't people who did as I did because the same questions would be asked over and over again, no matter how many times they'd been answered. However, in my naivete, I actually posted a scathing reply to someone who had given an RTFM to someone asking a really dumb question. Fortunately, the regular I bit into was bright enough to gently brush me off and make me rethink my position.
As a result, it wasn't too long before I realized that RTFM is a perfectly appropriate response to many questions; a good number of the answers are already posted to the PHP.net manual, if not in the articles themselves, then in the comments below. This mailing list does not exist to do people's homework for them.
I agree that this list should cater only to the PHP elite. If it did, I'd be lost because the help I've gotten here has been invaluable. But I got a lot of that help by reading other people's questions, not ignoring the other posts here.
When someone posts a question that's just been answered, or asks, "How do I print a variable on a page?" then they do deserve a sarcastic response for not bothering to do the *minimal* amount of investigation on their own.
And if sarcasm bothers you, then I find it a wonder you can function in normal society at all. People are sarcastic, and this is an open mailing list, not a closed corporate list. It'd be nice if everyone were nice, but it's not a requirement, and just because your company forces you to wear a suit and tie doesn't mean everyone you come in contact with has to as well.
> if you feel a question is off topic or stupid -
^or sarcastic
> ignore it,
Sound advice. Take it.
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